


The Price They Paid

by Gammarad



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Rescue, Trust Issues, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25680385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad
Summary: Atrius has one last test for Theron before he entrusts him with the mission to Copero. Theron knows what he needs to do to pass it, but given the circumstances, he's not sure what he's going to actually do.
Relationships: Male Imperial Agent | Cipher Nine/Theron Shan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	1. Choking on His Alibis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wednesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wednesday/gifts).



"But before you go chasing that holomap," Vinn Atrius said, "there's something else I need you to take care of right here."

Finally. It had been way too hard to win Atrius's trust. Theron wasn't sure if all of it had been worth it -- he had to make sure it would be. 

"Whatever I can do to help, that's why I'm here," Theron said, emphasizing the words with an outward spread of his hands.

"We caught someone we think infiltrated us for the Republic." Atrius frowned. "He's been valuable, and it's not proven. You used to work for the Republic. You know their protocols. Check him out and tell me whose side he's really on."

Oh. This wasn't good. Theron hoped it wasn't really someone he'd worked with for the Republic, or that if it was, it was someone who'd deserve what he got, because it was obvious this was another test for him. Would Theron protect an old friend or betray them to the Order, that's what Atrius wanted to know.

Despite running through all the possible Republic agents in his implants' records while a pair of Atrius's soldiers walked him down to the holding cells, the person Theron saw was a surprise. A shock, even.

Not someone whose _real_ name he knew, but someone he knew very well despite that. 

The slight man in the cell had short-cropped dark hair, nothing like the blond mop he'd sported when they last met, but it was definitely Cipher Nine. That Cipher Nine had a cover as a Republic infiltrator if whatever his first cover had been was found out didn't surprise Theron at all. That Cipher had let himself be caught and imprisoned? That was probably the shock, Theron thought.

"So, what's your name and who are you really?" As an opening, this was pretty blatant, but might as well see what Cipher was selling before he decided what to do. The fact that Theron was not sure what he was going to do was surprising. He had to tell Atrius that Cipher was a Republic spy, otherwise his whole scheme was dead at the outset. And that wasn't an option.

But he really, really didn't want to.

"I'm Demethri Latt," Cipher said, "and I'm a former Ziost citizen who was part of the Imperial forces before Ziost was destroyed. I deserted and came to Zakuul to work against the one who destroyed my home. As far as I can tell, the Order is the only group with any chance to defeat the Alliance the Emperor's latest puppet is building, so I joined up. I'm not sure what they suspect me of... they just keep telling me to confess." He frowned, his frustration plain on his face. 

Theron remembered that look. It was the same look Cipher had given him when he had explained why he hadn't thought Cipher was interested in him, right before their first kiss. He really couldn't think about _that_ right now if he was going to pull this off, but for some reason it kept leaping into his thoughts. He adjusted his implant to give him something to stay focused and douse any stray libido increase there might be causing the, yeah, that memory had to go too. 

The dose of intracerebral meds felt like stepping into a cold shower. Good, excellent, he hated it, but it was a lot safer this way. "What do you think they might suspect you of?" Theron asked. "Everyone has a guilty secret. What's yours?"

Oh, Cipher was good. That reddening in his ears. Cipher hadn't any visible implants, and what he did have he hadn't had control over, but maybe that had changed. "I'll tell you, but not them," he said, a quaver in his voice. "Make them leave." 

Theron turned to look at the two soldiers. "I'll be fine," he said. "Go on, let me get him talking." 

"Atrius's orders, we have to stay." The taller of the two guards sounded irritated to even have been asked to go.

"I doubt Atrius wants to hear that I tried and you two stopped me from effectively questioning his prisoner," Theron argued.

"We can let you into the cell and tune the barrier to block sound, so we can't hear what he says," the shorter guard offered.

"All right," Cipher said. 

Theron nodded, and stepped through quickly as the guards lowered the barrier to the cell. It came right back up after he was through, then changed color. Theron wasn't sure if it really was opaque to sound now or not, and hacking the controllers might give him away. But it hardly mattered, did it? Atrius doubtlessly had bugs inside here to listen in on the prisoner, so the guards hearing or not didn't matter.

And Cipher had to know that. So what was he up to?

The answer to that question came immediately. Theron saw words appear in the text buffer of one of his implants. _I put a back door in this one in case we needed it someday,_ and that had to be Cipher sending. 

Theron added some words back into the buffer. _I'd be angry but it's too useful right this minute. What are you up to, Cipher?_

 _You should know already._ Out loud, Cipher said, "I didn't just desert. I took munitions, sold them to the Hutts to get the credits to pay someone to get me to Zakuul. It's not like that Jedi who the Emperor is possessing is going to make a deal with Hutts, is it? So I didn't set our cause back. But I can see how Atrius would be mad about it, I guess."

 _Well, I don't, just tell me, would you?_ Theron shot back via his implant. "I already know you're lying. You know I know you're lying." 

_You'll figure it out._

_It took a lot to get through Atrius's suspicions. If I tell him you're not a Republic spy, he's going to start suspecting all over again, this time that I am working for the Republic and not the Alliance._

_If you tell him I'm a Republic spy, but you left me alive, he'll still suspect. You're going to need to shoot me._

Theron felt himself go cold all over. The hell of it was, Cipher was right. The best play here was to shoot him and tell Atrius he'd been a Republic spy, so they wouldn't think to look deeper and find out he'd really been an Imperial spy, and so they'd know Theron was fully committed to their side over either of his former allegiances. And if it'd been anyone else... Theron thought he could probably have done it. _I'm not going to kill you, Cipher._

 _You could make it quick. Atrius won't._ Cipher looked furtive and anxious and was babbling about Hutts and weapons deals and Theron just couldn't stand it.

Despite the implants, despite the chemical cold shower, Theron found himself seizing hold of Cipher and shutting off his lies with a kiss. _No,_ Theron furiously put into his implant buffer. _Not going to let you die._

 _It's flattering that you're willing to sacrifice so much but I'm the one line you won't cross,_ Cipher sent. Damn the unemotionality of text because Theron really wanted to know whether that was sarcasm or not. _But it's stupid of you. If you don't, then we both die and the mission fails._

 _I've survived worse,_ Theron responded, breaking off the kiss. He felt something else sliding into a different buffer of the same implant, the one for audio-video. 

_I suppose there's a chance Atrius will believe you're just personally sentimental, if you drop that somewhere they can stumble across it._ It's a shot of the two of them, when Cipher was blond and Theron had most of his hair too, hot and heavy. If it hadn't been for the chemicals suppressing his libido, Theron would be turned on and also embarrassed, but mostly he thought the idea might just work. 

_Trust me, I've got this._ Theron wrapped his arms around Cipher, embraced him as long as he dared and caught the disbelieving looks of the two guards, then let go. They separated and he waved to them to let him out. 

Theron was almost surprised when they did without demur. He stood in the barrier, tuning his implants to temporarily suppress the shielding -- a risk but it paid off. Cipher slipped out behind him and both guards slumped to the ground. _I'm trusting you. This only works short range, so don't die and maybe we'll see each other again some day._ Cipher took five steps and vanished.

Theron blinked and made his own way back to Atrius's office. "That didn't go at all how I expected," he began. "So it turns out this guy you caught wasn't a Republic spy, he's an ex-Imperial spy actually. And he and I go way back. He's running a scheme against the Republic, I think, and going undercover with you was just part of establishing a back story. He's out of your hair now. So I've taken care of the problem." He paused, watching Atrius, who seemed frozen. After it got really awkward, Theron added "You were saying something about one of the Chiss worlds?"

Atrius just stared at Theron. Suspicion slowly shifted to disbelief and then to something like amusement. "You're not at all what I expected," he said, "but I think you'll be useful to our cause. Welcome to the Order."

Theron felt tension slip out of him and he nodded briskly as Atrius began to brief him about Copero.


	2. Look on the Bright Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not too much later, on Copero --

The shuttle took off from the holomap ruins on Copero without Theron. Sure, it was a risk, but being aboard would've been a bigger one, given that most of the Chiss had figured out he wasn't really their ally and, this being their planet, shooting down his shuttle would probably be their first order of business.

As a contingency plan for if it didn't get shot down, he'd given the droid pilot a series of rendezvous points. He wouldn't actually be at any of them, because the shuttle not being shot down meant they knew he wasn't on it and were tracking it to locate him. Theron was going to steal a ship and get off Copero before the Chiss realized which ship he was really on. Standard shell game, and he really didn't want them figuring out which one he was hiding under.

He thought that for a split second he'd seen Lana out there with whoever the Ascendancy had sent after him and Valss. Her pale hair and glowy yellow eyes were not unique but they were rare -- and if Lana was here, odds were, the Commander was too. They'd got way too close, and for all he knew they might track him. 

He'd rather they catch him than the Chiss. There was a chance that _Lana and the Commander_ didn't want Theron dead. He made sure he turned on the shields against Force power detection full strength, though. His hosts, the Inrokini, had given him an upgrade on that. Chiss technology was really good against Force users, he'd learned. Testing the upgrades against Valss convinced Theron that even Lana and the Commander couldn't find him. 

So he was in the cold, snowy part of Copero and he was mostly dressed for it, but he didn't have his helmet or even a warm hat and the body heat he was losing through the top of his head was notable. It registered on his implants as enough heat loss that once the setting sun was the rest of the way below the horizon, he'd have a couple hours to find shelter or warmth, maximum.

Which was completely doable. Even out in the ruins where a lot of Chiss used to live but didn't anymore, Theron wasn't sure why. Any shelter would probably come equipped with some wild animal inhabitants. Theron would have to find a way around that. 

The first likely-looking shelter was a building whose roof hadn't entirely caved in. A welcoming archway was broken on one side, but the other had been propped up by plant growth and was still standing. Theron crept toward it slowly. 

Just as he was about to slip past the threshold, Theron froze. There were more shapes in the shadowy interior of the building than he'd expected. Bigger ones, too. Whatever the creatures were, he wasn't ready to tackle so many. 

Nearly two hours later, Theron was walking through the cold dark, his implants issuing warnings non-stop. If he didn't find shelter soon, he was going to need a week in a bacta tank to fix the frostbite, and that was the best case scenario. To the northeast, he saw a light flash. His implant identified the spectrum as artificial. Theron headed northeast to check it out.

He was just as stealthy as ever, had his sensors all on alert, and still was surprised enough to flinch when he felt something on his arm. Someone pulled him through a hidden doorway into a crumbling old tunnel. The floor of the tunnel slanted downward from the entrance, and he followed whoever this was in warmer gear than his own to a raised room on one side. "You're freezing," a voice said that Theron recognized instantly. 

"What are you doing here?" It was almost as cold in the tunnel as it had been outside, and almost as cold in the room as the tunnel. Theron let himself start shivering. 

Cipher unfolded a small shiny packet into a thermal wrap. "Saving you from freezing to death, apparently." He draped it over Theron's shoulders. 

Theron pulled the thin wrap over his head, still shivering, trying to get warm. It made crinkling sounds, and while it helped, his implants said he had to find a heat source as soon as possible. 

Cipher was right there. He would make a good heat source. "Warm enough?" Cipher asked, dropping to sit on the rough duracrete floor of the room. 

This was some kind of old storm sewer, maybe, Theron speculated. "Still cold. This is helping, though, thanks."

"Come on." Looking up at him, Cipher beckoned with a crooked finger. 

His implants all agreed this was the best idea. Theron wasn't sure at all, but freezing seemed like a worse choice than fraternizing. Maybe. Probably. He sat down next to Cipher and extended the thermal wrap around them both.

"The ground's cold, too," Cipher said, and pulled Theron to sit across his lap. Theron pulled his knees up so only the soles of his boots rested on the chilly floor. The thermal wrap went around his calves, his back and Cipher's, and overlapped itself. 

Now he was starting to thaw. It felt good at first, then parts of his face began to burn like fire. Theron told his implants to turn that sensation off and most of it went away. A good amount of kolto would fix it. "Got any kolto on you?" he asked hopefully.

"Did, but ran into a pack of beasts a few hours ago and had to use it so I could keep walking," Cipher said. "We can refill on my ship."

On his ship? That wasn't in Theron's plan. He should play along. He still didn't know why Cipher was here. How Cipher had known he was here. If Cipher wanted him dead, he'd be dead already -- but Cipher still might be working with Lana and the Commander. Theron had to watch what he said. "So you really are here to rescue me."

"Of course. I owe you for how you stupidly let me live when the Order caught me. The nice thing about being an independent agent is that I choose my own assignments. I know what you told Atrius, but I don't work for the Empire. As for the Republic, hah." Cipher leaned forward and kissed Theron's temple, the one without the external implants. "You're the only Republic agent I like. No offense." 

Theron was warming up, all the adrenaline of the mission to find the Emperor's holomap long gone, exhaustion staved off for this long by implants but it was tempting to let himself relax, slip into the comfort of Cipher's protection. However unreliable logic told him it was, it felt real. "Guess I don't mind not sharing you." He rested his head on Cipher's shoulder. This would keep Cipher from knowing he was suspicious, he told himself, so it was fine. 

"The not so nice thing about being an independent agent is having to make my own judgment calls," Cipher said thoughtfully. He had a tight grip on Theron now. 

Theron thought he could maybe get away if Cipher tried something, but he wasn't sure at all. Cipher was fast -- and stronger than he looked. He had to keep Cipher thinking he fully trusted him. Letting him go when it was "stupid" should help that along, so maybe it had been smart after all. "Why isn't that nice?"

"I know who's been reliable in the past." Cipher shifted just a little, and Theron knew it wasn't working. Now Cipher had him in a hold he was pretty sure he couldn't get out of, not before Cipher killed him or used a drug on him, something to render him unconscious, fast acting like whatever he'd used on the Order guards the last time they'd met. "You and Lana are top of that list. When you're on the same side, I _know_ that's the right side. But right now? You aren't on the same side. So what's your angle, Theron? What are you doing, really?"

"We don't want the Chiss coming in on the wrong side," Theron said, trying to figure out how to play this. Nothing was coming to mind. 

"And you think the Alliance is the wrong side now?" Cipher's voice was tight. "You know most of my former team has joined them. Kaliyo would work for anyone, SCORPIO does whatever she wants, but Temple, Lokin... both of them working with someone gives me the impression working against them isn't a great idea. And you were all for it not that long ago... what happened?"

Theron really didn't want to answer that question. He didn't want to give the cover story he told the Commander, and he didn't want to tell Cipher the truth, either. So he used an old trick. "The Emperor still might have control of the Commander," he said. "I trust the Jedi, but old Valkorion... can't be entirely gone. Trying to take over as Emperor'd prove it, and that's what the Commander will do, just watch. The Order aren't good guys, far from it, but they're maybe the only effective opposition, and we have to have someone ready to fight when that asshole comes back. I'm doing what I could think of." 

"Just when I think you can't possibly have a good reason, you come up with that." Cipher let up on his dangerously competent hold of Theron to tilt Theron's face toward his, bring their lips close enough to kiss. Theron let him, trying not to reveal how relieved he was at being released. Trying not even to let Cipher know he knew he'd been caught, even if he knew Cipher knew he knew. Still better to pretend. All the layers of pretense could hide something, if not everything. This was a precarious situation Theron was in, still, but he didn't mind anymore, he was beginning to enjoy himself. Especially now that Cipher was kissing him.

It wasn't until much later, after Cipher had sent the droid pilot coordinates for a waystation and Theron was back on his own shuttle, that the message appeared in his implant buffer. _At least you had the sense to lie to me about what you were doing,_ the message said. _Good luck with it. We're even now. Next time you pull something like that, don't expect I'll let you go so easy._ Theron shivered. 

He wasn't sure how Cipher meant it, but he read it again and again, _don't expect I'll let you go so easy._ No, nothing with Cipher was going to be easy. Theron saved the message to permanent memory where it couldn't get lost or erased, and got to work closing the back door Cipher had installed in one of his implants. 


End file.
